Northampton tree canopy change 2011-2021

Introduction

This report uses data from the National Land Coverage Database (NLCD) to summarize tree canopy changes in Northampton, Mass. from 2001 to 2021.

NLCD data was obtained from the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium. An interactive viewer for the underlying data is available here.

The NLCD provides data on tree canopy coverage at 30 meter resolution. The percent of canopy coverage is reported for each 30 meter square, with data available for each year from 2011 to 2021.

Tree canopy in Northampton

Overall tree canopy coverage in Northampton was approximately 57% for the entire period 2011-2021.

Canopy coverage increased slightly from 57.2% in 2011 to a high of 57.6% in 2013, then decreased to a low of 56.6% in 2021, a decline of just over 1%.

Canopy coverage declined by 0.6% from 2011 to 2021, a loss of 133 acres.

This chart shows tree canopy coverage for the City as whole.

This table shows the canopy percent and the change in percent and acres for the entire city.

		Coverage
Change in tree canopy coverage in Northampton, 2011-2021
	Total area (acres)	2011		2021		Change
	Total area (acres)	Acres	Percent	Acres	Percent	Percent	Acres
Northampton	22,930	13,107	57.2%	12,974	56.6%	−0.6%	-133.0
Data: Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium \| Analysis: Kent S Johnson

Tree canopy in city centers

This chart shows the tree canopy coverage within the three city centers of Northampton.

Leeds center has the greatest amount of coverage, over 40%. Florence center has about 35% coverage while Northampton is about 20%.

The map at the end of this report shows the extents of the three city centers.

The next chart shows the change in percent tree canopy coverage in city centers since the 2011 baseline.

Leeds is the only city center with increased canopy coverage from 2011 to 2021. Coverage has decreased by almost 2% in Northampton and Florence.

This table shows the canopy coverage in 2011 and 2021 in the three city centers and the change in percent and acres.

		Coverage
Change in tree canopy coverage in city centers, 2011-2021
City center	Total area (acres)	2011		2021		Change
City center	Total area (acres)	Acres	Percent	Acres	Percent	Percent	Acres
Leeds	120	48.6	40.5%	50.1	41.8%	1.3%	1.5
Florence	149	53.0	35.5%	50.3	33.7%	−1.8%	-2.7
Northampton	138	29.1	21.2%	26.6	19.3%	−1.8%	-2.5
Data: Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium \| Analysis: Kent S Johnson

Tree canopy by zoning category

This chart show the tree canopy percent within five zoning categories aggregated from the City zoning. Unsurprisingly, there is considerable difference in tree canopy coverage across the different zoning categories.

The next chart shows the change in percent tree canopy since the 2011 baseline, by zoning category.

The canopy increase from 2011 to 2013 is mostly in the Rural and Suburban/Water supply zones. All zones have seen a decrease in canopy since 2013. The decrease is largest in the Business/industrial and Central business zones.

This table shows the canopy coverage in 2011 and 2021 by zone.

		Coverage
Change in tree canopy coverage by zoning category, 2011-2021
Zoning class	Total area (acres)	2011		2021		Change
Zoning class	Total area (acres)	Acres	Percent	Acres	Percent	Percent	Acres
Suburban/Water supply	6,680	4,421	66.2%	4,379	65.5%	−0.6%	-42.9
Rural	13,019	7,544	57.9%	7,505	57.6%	−0.3%	-38.9
Urban	2,701	1,233	45.7%	1,201	44.4%	−1.2%	-32.7
Business/industrial	969	312	32.2%	296	30.5%	−1.7%	-16.3
Central business	258	36.0	14.0%	30.7	11.9%	−2.0%	-5.3
Data: Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium \| Analysis: Kent S Johnson

Canopy change map

This map shows the change in tree canopy percent from 2011 to 2021. Overlays show Northampton city centers and zoning categories as aggregated for this report.

Low canopy map

This map shows areas of the city with less than 20% tree canopy in 2021 in pink. Overlays show Northampton city centers and zoning categories as aggregated for this report.